Kitzbühel, Austria - The launch route into the Austrian Alps for Mercedes-Benz’s brave new GLE Coupé emphasised one thing very quickly and clearly.
Mercedes is at once serious about retaining a truly comfortable ride for its new SUV, but has injected an aura of sharpness about the cars that was lacking in previous generations of the ML Sports Utility series (which the newly-named GLE effectively supersedes in both Coupé and SUV forms).
Mercedes-Benz vice-president for SUVs and sports cars Wolf-Dieter Kurz made clear: “With this model we are matching ourselves with those who have previously defined sportiness in this segment.
Herr Kurz was no doubt referring at least in part to BMW, which introduced its X6 Coupé in this segment some five years ago to initial perplexity and then a growing fascination and customer base among a certain segment of the sporty lifestyle public. But Mercedes is quick to point out that with its new car it is merely cementing a place in a segment that it in fact created with the first ML-Class way back in the late 1990s.
Key to the mix of sharpness and reassuring comfort in this new sporty SUV is its Dynamic Select driving dynamics control system which offers as many as five different driving modes, depending on the model.
Another huge factor is the all new steering system, known by Mercedes (which is fond of specifically naming every single new technological development) as Sports Direct-Steer. The new steering system proves more ideal for guiding, as opposed to trundling, this sporty but nevertheless bulky coupé deep into mountain terrain.
VOCAL PRESENCE
Okay, so the chassis has been given a big workout. What about power? Well, further to Merc’s belief that this new car will not disappoint in any sort of sporty context, the international launch drive of the coupé saw only its two top-powered models available for selection.
The small South African group first sampled the new GLE 450 AMG Coupé, powered by a twin-turbo V6 petrol engine, good for 270kW and 430Nm, and fitted with the seamless new nine-speed automatic ‘box known as the 9G-Tronic, mated to the 4Matic all-wheel-drive system standard on all GLE models.
However, whilst torque split on the less-endowed models in the GLE range is 50/50, on the GLE 450 AMG Coupe the split is 40 front, 60 rear, for a more “pointy” attitude.
The engine on the 450 was quite surprising in its vocal presence, emitting a soulful six-cylinder song that echoed off the mountains. And this is, of course, enhanced when selecting one of the Sport modes on the dynamic driving programme, which is easily achieved via a rotary knob on the centre console.
Performance on the GLE 450 AMG Coupé is brisk to say the least, especially for a petrol V6. It runs the 0-100 km/h gauntlet in a claimed 5.7 seconds and races on to an electronically-limited 250km/h, so it more than deserves its grand-sounding “450” name-plate, despite employing an engine displacing only 2996cc. Such is the new world of engine downsizing that we live in, where numbers attached to models don’t mean anything specific anymore.
BIG DADDY
But talking of numbers, if you want to get really serious then go for the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupé.
This is the Big Daddy of the range, with its 5.5-litre V8 biturbo V8 easing out a solid 412kW and 760Nm. The numbers for sprinting include a 4.2 second 0-100km/h time, and this model is quite comfortable with a “mere” seven speeds on AMG Speedshift Plus 7G-Tronic gearbox. Fuel tank sizing, by the way, is 107 litres but if you treat it gently (not likely) you may even get close to the EU-rated consumption of 11.9 litres/100 km.
As for looks we’ll leave you to make your own judgements, but I liked its un-fussy lines.
Interestingly, Merc is claiming its luggage space is the “biggest for any coupé anywhere” - 650 litres with the rear seats in use, 1720 with them flat.
The new GLE Coupé is scheduled for South African release in October/November 2015 and pricing for the 450 AMG (without the CO2 tax) is set for R1 099 900, with the 63 weighing in at a hefty R1 859 900. For the more modest, there will be a GLE 350 d Coupé selling for R999 900. - Star Motoring